By Tyler Durden
Shortly after Taiwan announced that it had successfully produced its own vaccine as it seeks to bolster its domestic COVID response, India has followed up on its promise to create its own homespun DNA-based COVID jab.
The DNA vaccine uses circular strands of DNA to prime the immune system against a virus – in this case, SARS-CoV-2. Researchers welcomed news of the first DNA vaccine’s approval, saying it could be a major step forward in the battle against COVID. The jab, called ZyCoV-D, is administered into the skin without an injection, and has been found to be 67% protective against symptomatic COVID-19 in clinical trials.
Now that India has approved the jab and manufacturing is ramping up, ZyCoV-D will likely start to be administered in India later this month. Although the efficacy is not particularly high compared to that of many other COVID-19 vaccines, the fact that it is a DNA vaccine is significant, say researchers.
